When José Manuel Carreño arrived at Ballet San Jose last summer as its new artistic director, he made no secret of his desire to elevate the company’s profile. That mission began with a splashy gala in November featuring high-powered guest artists from American Ballet Theater–where Carreño spent years as a principal dancer–plus San Francisco Ballet, New York City Ballet and Boston Ballet.

Now Ballet San Jose wants to become a magnet for aspiring male dancers, who are a critical component of any ballet organization. Females always greatly outnumber their gender opposites in this rarified world. As Dalia Rawson, principal of Ballet San Jose School and director of its trainee program, reasons, “How can we do Swan Lake if we don’t have a prince?”

While females concentrate on pointe work, “males do more tricks, bigger jumps and flashier turns in classical ballet repertoire. There’s a certain vocabulary that’s required,” Rawson says. “When you have a class of all girls and one boy, there’s no time to drill that stuff.”

Although Rawson claims San Jose actually has an “extremely strong” male program, BSJ has just announced the Carreño male dancer training initiative. For the all-important summer intensive, a highly competitive program that provides pre-professional training for experienced young dancers, scholarships–for guys only–will be offered. Moreover, Carreño himself, with faculty members such as Mads Eriksen, a one-time Royal Danish Ballet soloist, and former BSJ principal Le Mai Linh, will give special attention to the male participants.

Another selling point for the intensive: BSJ will follow ABT’s national training curriculum. In 2011, San Jose formed a partnership with American Ballet Theatre, becoming the only institution on the West Coast with such certification.

BSJ plans to offer a minimum of three tuition scholarships in this inaugural year of the male-focused initiative, with Rawson hoping for as many as five. The intensive will run July 7 through Aug. 1, with room for 120 students. For all participants there will also be chaperoned housing available at San Jose State University dorms, another first.

Before he attended BSJ’s summer intensive last year, Zachary Alsop, 20, a company trainee, was fairly new to dancing. A former pole vaulter at Santa Teresa High School, he was persuaded by a friend to check out a local dance studio with her two years ago. He fell hard for ballet and quickly considered it for a career.

“I grew more in the four weeks [at the intensive] than I had in the year and a half at the dance studio,” he says. Alsop’s talent and, equally important, his dedication were recognized at the summer event. He’s now a member of BSJ’s trainee program, a one- to two-year course intended as a steppingstone to a professional job. An apprenticeship would be the next level and then, if he’s very lucky, an offer from a ballet company would result.

In fact, in 10 years Alsop sees himself as a principal, the highest spot one can attain in his profession. “I just want to dance forever,” he says. “I just love it.”

Rawson and Eriksen are quick to emphasize that Alsop’s rapid progression–starting ballet at 18, for starters–is far from typical. Many years of training is the more conventional route; BSJ offers classes for children as young as 3 and 4. (Rawson is often out at Mommy & Me and Daddies, Too get-togethers at Santana Row, talking up the joys of introducing one’s tyke to ballet.)

However, as Eriksen cautions, “When you’re training at an early age, it’s to enhance the rest of your life. When they’re 6 or 7, they shouldn’t just be dancing. We encourage everybody to do other activities. Go play soccer, learn an instrument, because when you hit 13 or 14 for boys, you really have to make a choice that ballet is what you want to do.”

As far as the summer intensives, Eriksen likens them to colleges recruiting prime talent for their football squads. “We’re trying to create a team, too, ” he says.

These few weeks act as a showcase for girls and boys–at BSJ it’s restricted to ages 11 to 20–who are serious about making a living in ballet. “Our main goal is to get our kids into the company we’re affiliated with, but there are always too many kids for company spots,” Eriksen continues. “So our real goal is to get our kids into any company. In order to do that, they have to be seen.”

“Everyone has a summer intensive; it’s very competitive,” Rawson adds. “There are a handful in the United States that everyone wants to go to–Boston Ballet, New York City Ballet, ABT, Pacific Northwest in Seattle, San Francisco and Houston.” BSJ’s seven-city audition process is already under way. The next one will be held Feb. 16 at the company’s headquarters in downtown San Jose.

“That’s where having someone like José spearheading the male dancer training initiative is really great,” Rawson says, citing his star power and reputation as a teacher. Carreño is also on the board of the Youth America Grand Prix, billed as the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition. The finals will be held in New York City in April, where he’ll be scouting for talent.

According to Rawson, BSJ’s school has grown 30 percent in the two years since the implementation of the ABT curriculum, and is doing well at both attracting and retaining students. Despite the company’s recent budget-tightening changes, which include dropping Saturday matinees, she is cheerfully confident.

“The training initiative started a couple of years ago, but now we want to become a world-class institution,” she declares. “We have a student body whose talent deserves that.”

Intuitive Surgical paid $30.4 million in cash on March 5 for a more than three-decade-old building about two blocks from its current headquarters, which are on Kifer Road in Sunnyvale, according to Santa Clara County property records.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in a letter sent Thursday to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that the administration has failed to produce documents tied to Kushner and other officials despite requests from the committee since 2017.